Are we getting too comfortable with age gaps?

The news of Alia Bhatt being cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Gauri Shinde’s next film has raised many an eyebrow and initiated a discussion that had conveniently remained unspoken of in Bollywood for years now – and that is, age gap. Despite his onscreen presence, charming persona and his ability to rake in considerable moolah at the box office, one cannot overlook the fact that SRK will be entering his 50s this November, whereas Alia is only 22 – the two have an overwhelming age gap of 28 years. The details of their roles have not been revealed and it is quite possible that Shinde will not depict them in a creepy relationship, but to know that the two will be seen romancing each other on screen still does not make perfect sense.

In fact, Bollywood seems to be getting too comfortable with age gaps. Aamir Khan, who has already crossed 50, was recently cast alongside Anushka Sharma, who is less than half his age, in PK. There have also been Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Asin in Aamir’s recent past. Salman Khan takes it a notch up by having young debutantes as his love interests in films – be it Sonakshi Sinha in Dabangg (23 at the time), Zarine Khan in Veer or Daisy Shah in Jai Ho. Perhaps the ‘big daddy’ of them all is Rajnikanth, who despite being over 60 years of age, has romanced the likes Aishwariya Rai, Sonakshi and Radhika Apte.

To think that Pakistan’s entertainment industry would be any different is just being naïve. While the new-age Pakistani film industry is still too nascent to be judged along these lines and Lollywood was surprisingly more sensible in its approach in terms of age differences, if not in content, Pakistani television has long been taking advantage of the prevalent silence on this topic.

A constant victim of ‘romancing the elderly’ has been Sajal Ali, who at 20 years of age is the youngest actress on television. If you think 34-year-old Sami Khan was too old to be cast opposite her in Meri Ladli, think again. She has been a wife to Yasir Nawaz (who is exactly 20 years older than her) in Chup Raho as well as Faisal Rehman’s love interest in Sitamgar! Her contemporaries, too, have witnessed a similar fate. Mawra Hocane was seen playing Adnan Siddiqui’s wife in Aahista Aahista and was conveniently fixed in marriage to Shamoon Abbasi in Nikhar Gaye Hain Gulab Saare while Sanam Baloch was in awe of her elder cousin Humayun Saeed, so much so as to ultimately become his wife, in Doraha. The list is almost unending.

Surprisingly in most of these television plays, if not all, such a significant age difference was all too welcomed by the families. As if first-cousin marriage was not enough of an uneasy relationship dynamic, Pakistani television has also become over-embracive of couples with an inappropriate age difference.

And while such couples and their existence are not far from reality and television is only just a mirror of that, reality also includes age differences being the other way around. How come that doesn’t make it to our television screens all too often? Because that’s just too gross and fancying an older man, who is the same age as your father, isn’t.

Also, actresses over the age of 40 are relegated to being mothers or even grandmothers because they are ‘too old’ to be leading ladies. Bollywood has tried to escape its discriminatory ways under the blanket of women-oriented films where actresses like Rani Mukherjee, Aishwariya Rai and even Sridevi, still get to lead the show but without a man by their side, especially a famed one, because perhaps he will not to be too comfortable in letting a woman of her age revel in the spotlight. Others like Madhuri Dixit, Tabu and Vidya Balan are left to find love with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah and Amitabh Bachchan, who have become granddads in real life. However, the bitter truth remains that while the Khans in their 50s are still reigning Bollywood as the ‘heroes’, the women who once played their love interests dancing around trees, continue to struggle at the same age.

Be it Bollywood or the Pakistani drama industry, if we are willing to accept a relationship between a 50-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, then we should be also be okay showing age-appropriate relationships on screen. The latter sure makes perfect sense and the former needn’t be so glorified.

With information from India Today.